Oh, goodness! Reading Browning on a rainy day, away from home, exhausted from the journey of learning…she gave a blow to my emotional being. If pathos had not been considered a political rhetoric tool, Browning made it true! Stanza after stanza, “The Cry of the Children” can tear ones heart…but not the ones in control of the system whose interests were financial and industrial. I could not imagine a world where children woke up praying to die to escape the unbearable rules of adults. Where are the parents? We are never told…probably in the predicament.
I know I have to distance myself from the emotional and look at how the poem functions as a political tool- a propaganda, if you will, one that has in its core the salvation of children from hard labor. Browning changes the way we have looked as the national identity so far, and creates a world of misery…a world where that identity is based on the exploitation of some.
Then I thought, let me read the other poem, “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point.’ Well, whatever emotion had escaped me from the first poem I encountered in this one. Marvin and I were discussing Browning the other day ad he was telling me about her father and the agonized life she lived because she did not believe in slavery, like her father did. Interesting things arise in my mind of the still unexplained phenomenon of how children many times are very distanced from their parents’ politics and belief systems. Then most interestingly, I wonder where does the artistic inspiration come from and the belief that art can promote changes I the world if it is calculated toward a specific direction. Browning’s politics and sense of injustice are absolutely passionately portrayed in the form of political poetry. Her form and style are based on traditional conventions but I wonder if her subject matter was embraced by her contemporaries. Not sure…
And then I read Hiram Powers’ “Greek Slave.” It is very difficult for me to distance myself from the history I have learned about my place of birth and the Greek women who suffered different forms of enslavement. What I found interesting about this poem is Browning’s judgment on the artistic misinterpretation of the statue’s lacking true emotion. Her sympathy toward an artistic subject is guided through true emotion. Her work must represent then, not the technical ability but the truth to display the emotional, political effect of art.
I will stop here for now. I will continue again later…
Oh, goodness! Reading Browning on a rainy day, away from home, exhausted from the journey of learning…she gave a blow to my emotional being. If pathos had not been considered a political rhetoric tool, Browning made it true! Stanza after stanza, “The Cry of the Children” can tear ones heart…but not the ones in control of the system whose interests were financial and industrial. I could not imagine a world where children woke up praying to die to escape the unbearable rules of adults. Where are the parents? We are never told…probably in the predicament.
I know I have to distance myself from the emotional and look at how the poem functions as a political tool- a propaganda, if you will, one that has in its core the salvation of children from hard labor. Browning changes the way we have looked as the national identity so far, and creates a world of misery…a world where that identity is based on the exploitation of some.
Then I thought, let me read the other poem, “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point.’ Well, whatever emotion had escaped me from the first poem I encountered in this one. Marvin and I were discussing Browning the other day ad he was telling me about her father and the agonized life she lived because she did not believe in slavery, like her father did. Interesting things arise in my mind of the still unexplained phenomenon of how children many times are very distanced from their parents’ politics and belief systems. Then most interestingly, I wonder where does the artistic inspiration come from and the belief that art can promote changes I the world if it is calculated toward a specific direction. Browning’s politics and sense of injustice are absolutely passionately portrayed in the form of political poetry. Her form and style are based on traditional conventions but I wonder if her subject matter was embraced by her contemporaries. Not sure…
And then I read Hiram Powers’ “Greek Slave.” It is very difficult for me to distance myself from the history I have learned about my place of birth and the Greek women who suffered different forms of enslavement. What I found interesting about this poem is Browning’s judgment on the artistic misinterpretation of the statue’s lacking true emotion. Her sympathy toward an artistic subject is guided through true emotion. Her work must represent then, not the technical ability but the truth to display the emotional, political effect of art.
I will stop here for now. I will continue again later…